Every year, publishers rank the most popular diets for weight loss. In most cases, this a practice in mental masturbation, because it leaves out the most important success factor of all: adherence. Instead, avoid cookie cutter recommendations with the Diet Index Enjoyability Total—or DIET.

The Diet Index Enjoyability Total (DIET) score is a hypothetical number created by Dr. Yoni Freedhoff, the founder of Weighty Matters, who also runs one of the largest obesity clinics in Canada. Dr. Freedhoff noticed that the enjoyment factor of a diet is one of the most important factors when determining one's success. As he puts it:

"If you don't like the life you're living while you're losing weight you're almost certainly going to gain it back. More simply put: weight lost through suffering will likely be regained."

This claim has some pretty solid backing. A recent meta-analysis (a study of studies) from The Journal of the American Medical Association shows that diet adherence—over other factors such as low carbohydrates, high carbohydrates, and so on—was the main factor in determining diet efficacy.

Indeed, it seems that all diets do work; the hard part is finding one you can stick to. In order to determine a diet's overall sustainability, go through Dr. Freedhoff's checklist below and assign an enjoyability score of 1-10 before you decide to try the diet:

No diet is perfect, and there are tensions and tradeoffs between bullet points. For example, one diet may be super flexible, but the abundance of choice increases complexity. Regardless, the checklist is super useful for finding out what diet ultimately works for you in the long run. The next time you decide to change your diet, consider this checklist to see if it's sustainable.